When a consumer of unique items, such as gemstones, antiques, used cars, art, and so on, is in the market to purchase an item, the consumer is typically looking for a certain item that has specific attributes desirable to the consumer. For example, in the case of gemstones, a consumer may be interested in purchasing a gemstone having a particular cut, size, color, clarity, shape, and price. Many unique items have a seemingly unlimited number of possible combinations of attributes. These unlimited combinations of attributes cause sellers of unique items to consolidate the items in large inventories or databases, in order to provide a large number of purchase options to consumers. By making the databases electronically available to consumers, such as over the Internet, sellers allow consumers to easily search through the databases to find the item that they would like to purchase.
While making databases available online has been a significant benefit to consumers, deciding which item or items to purchase can be daunting to a consumer given the large number of choices that are now available to the consumer. Making a purchase decision may be particularly challenging to novice or unknowledgeable consumers, who may be overwhelmed by the large number of choices that they are presented. Therefore, an interface providing information to help in selecting a subset of items to investigate further or purchase would have desirable utility.
In order to help consumers search through large databases of items and decide which items to purchase, online retailers have created tools to assist consumers. When consumers are shopping for a product, they often want to know what other customers have chosen. Knowing that other customers have made similar choices can make a customer feel more comfortable about their own choice and lower the barrier to purchase. Such purchase information has recently been made available when choosing between different product manufacturers or product models of non-unique items. For example, Amazon.com has a tool that shows a user that is looking at a particular product whether the majority of consumers purchase the particular product the user is looking at, or whether consumers typically purchase a different product. When looking at a Nikon Coolpix S550 camera, for example, the tool may indicate that 55% of the people who look at the Coolpix camera purchase the S550, but that 30% purchase a Nikon Coolpix L18 (another model) and 15% purchase a Canon model (another manufacturer). Such a comparison tool is not applicable in the area of unique items, however, as no two customers can purchase the same item.
The need exists for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.
Note: the headings provided herein are for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or interpretation of the invention.
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